Numele provinciei Mitropoliei de Marcianopolis în Notitiae Episcopatuum

Abstract

The metropolitan see of Marcianopolis (today’s Devnya, in Bulgaria) is referenced in six Notitiae episcopatuum of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. However, although Marcianopolis used to be the metropolis of the Roman province of Moesia Secunda until 536, its ecclesiastical province is referred to as ʻHaemimontusʼ,
ʻHaemimontus IIʼ or even ʻThraciaʼ in Notitiae. Besides, in Notitia 3 there are displayed the paragraphs of two provinces – ʻHaemimontus IIʼ and ʻMoesia Iʼ – whose sees were located in the territory of the civil Moesia Secunda. Taking into account all these clues, Notitiae appear to be rather puzzling documents. This investigation was designed mainly to clarify the name of the province of the metropolitan see of Marcianopolis in the original (now-lost) Notitia. To achieve this purpose, the author first sets forth the recent knowledge of the ecclesiastical organization at lower Danube in the 4th-6th centuries. Actually, there was never in
existence more than one great metropolis in the territory of the civil Moesia Secunda. The see of Marcianopolis had been the metropolis of the province until 536 when it lost the rank on behalf of the see of Odessos. Therefore, any information concerning the metropolitan see of Marcianopolis cannot be dated later than the year 536. In the second part of the article, the author examines what province the sees lying in the civil Moesia Secunda were assigned to in the documents (others than Notitiae) written in the 4th-6th centuries. This survey reveals that this province was referred to as ʻMoesia Secundaʼ or, in an abbreviated form, ʻMoesiaʼ, both before and after 536. On the basis of this evidence, it is concluded that the name of the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan see of Marcianopolis was always ʻMoesia Secundaʼ (or the abbreviated ʻMoesiaʼ), but never ʻHaemimontusʼ, ʻHaemimontus IIʼ or ʻThraciaʼ. Thus, it is very likely that the latter names are the result of compilers’ or copyists’ errors in Notitiae.